The survey conducted last month shows a drop in the confidence rating of institutions across the board – public, private, non-governmental and even religious – compared to the results of a similar survey conducted in November of 2013/FILE
The survey conducted last month shows a drop in the confidence rating of institutions across the board – public, private, non-governmental and even religious – compared to the results of a similar survey conducted in November of 2013.
“Such results raise the question as to what accounts for such widespread negativity over the last few months. Is it more a reflection of an initial post-election optimism that would simply unrealistically high or more one based on a focused scrutiny of performance?” the report posed.
The media is the worst hit with a 25 percent drop in confidence from 68 to 43 percent as President Uhuru Kenyatta registered a 12 percent drop in his confidence rating to score a 41 percent from 53 percent in November.
He however maintained a 69 percent confidence rating among Jubilee supporters while Raila Odinga scored 54 percent among Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD) supporters.
“This raises the question (even before the aborted ODM elections of last Friday), if 46 percent of backers of the coalition which he heads have anything less than “a lot of confidence” in him, how secure is his position, at least in the longer term?,” the report continued to pose.
Even the Jubilee government’s perceived achievements suffered a decline with an improved health care system, which topped the list both in February and November 2013, dropping from a 30 to 16 percent support base.
County governments didn’t fare any better and came in only second to the media and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission with the biggest drop in public confidence; they dropped 15 points to a 13 percent rating.
The Judiciary’s drop of 12 percent, the report speculated could be the result of the verbal onslaught it has suffered in the last few months.
“Even the Supreme court’s/other courts’ declines of 12 percent and 7pc, respectively, are within this range, perhaps a reflection of recent verbal attacks on several judicial constitutional rulings,” the report states.
The decline in public confidence in the Kenya Defence Forces was however very minimal, almost negligible, at two percent and they were the least affected having scored a 32 percent in November 2013.
The high cost of living remains the number one concern for Kenyans with half of the 2,031 respondents surveyed identifying it.
“As the President and Cabinet retreat for their deliberations in Nanyuki, Kenyans have basically expressed the same views regarding the country’s most pressing problems as they did four months ago,” the Ipsos Synovate Kenya report stated.
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